I was just getting interested in what Tom had to say, but the video
won't play.
Reinventing the clay building brick
June 1, 2010 | Length: 00:02:30
CalStar Products CEO Tom Pounds is laying the foundation for 'green' building materials one brick at a time. His company has developed a new type of building brick that uses neither clay or cement during manufacturing. Instead they've figured out a more energy efficient process by using fly ash, a material that's left over after burning coal in the nation's big power plants.
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RE: Reinventing the clay building brick
Posted by barryjb@...
16th Jul 2010
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RE: Reinventing the clay building brick
Posted by cochraness
1st Jun 2010
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RE: Reinventing the clay building brick
Don't say "Read full story" if there is no story to read. Flash video
can jam. Some of us use flashblock. What about people who are
deaf? Is there close-captioning video for them? Think!
can jam. Some of us use flashblock. What about people who are
deaf? Is there close-captioning video for them? Think!
Posted by mastman01
1st Jun 2010
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RE: Reinventing the clay building brick
Very, VERY cool use of normally considered waste product.
Posted by LostValley@...
11th Jun 2010
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RE: Reinventing the clay building brick
An awesome use for what is normally a waste byproduct.
Posted by woodgeek
22nd Jun 2010
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RE: Reinventing the clay building brick
Where can I get more information, i.e. when will these products be available?
Posted by dukelap
22nd Jun 2010
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RE: Reinventing the clay building brick
I'm interested in the toxicity of the fly ash in original and bricked form. Would the bricks shed potentially dangerous silica dust and leach toxic chemicals? Would the fly ash have to be tested for toxicity prior to being bricked? Would runoff from a bricked wall contaminate nearby groundwater or soil? How is runoff from those large ash piles treated?
Posted by Hfly1
29th Jun 2010
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RE: Reinventing the clay building brick
what about the heavy metals and radio-actinides found in fly ash? There could
be emissions of radon and so forth from much of this material depending on
where it is produced. Did you know one of the largest sources of industrial
radioactive contamination is not from nuke power plants but from coal fired
electric production. I hope this brick is great but before I were to use this I would
want to know for sure that I am not building a house unfit for human habitation.
be emissions of radon and so forth from much of this material depending on
where it is produced. Did you know one of the largest sources of industrial
radioactive contamination is not from nuke power plants but from coal fired
electric production. I hope this brick is great but before I were to use this I would
want to know for sure that I am not building a house unfit for human habitation.
Posted by nfiertel
2nd Jul 2010
0
Votes
RE: Reinventing the clay building brick
I would contact CalStar for any and all of those GREAT questions
that I would be asking also. Hopefully, they have done all that
research and that is why they are in business producing this
product. I also think it is a great idea for Smart Planet to become
more socially responsible by creating handicap accessibility for its
videos.
that I would be asking also. Hopefully, they have done all that
research and that is why they are in business producing this
product. I also think it is a great idea for Smart Planet to become
more socially responsible by creating handicap accessibility for its
videos.
Posted by barryjb@...
16th Jul 2010
Transcript
Music
>> Tom Pounds: I'm Tom Pounds. I'm CEO of CalStar products, and we make green building materials.
Music I've always been interested in buildings and in the built environment. In college I studied structural engineering and architecture. Brick products and masonry products, in general, are very attractive green building materials once they're in the building. They have high thermal mass, they help control buildings' heating and cooling in a very good way. We're setting out to reinvent these materials in a way that uses much, much less energy and generates much, much less CO2 in production. Clay bricks are made when you extract clay from the ground, you form it and you dry it, and then you cure it in very, very hot ovens, what are called tunnel kilns. So that's where all the energy footprint is in the traditional product. So our challenge is how to make a product that performs just like a clay brick and looks just as beautiful as a clay brick, but do it with much, much less energy. What's different about our bricks is that we neither fire them in a hot kiln, nor do we use any cement in manufacturing them. The way we do that is we take advantage of a resource that exists in huge quantities in the U.S., and that resource is the ash that's left over after we burn coal in our big power plants where we generate electricity for all of us to use in our day-to-day activities. So, in the U.S. we burn enough coal that we're left with 75 million tons of this fly ash every year that we either have to find something good to do with, or we have to dispose of.
>> Are we ready?
>> Tom Pounds: Energy efficient and climate friendly bricks are not going to save the world all by themselves, but I think they are part of a larger movement that has to happen where we have to all reconsider the traditional way we've done things and we've made things and we use things. And so we think of it as really a piece in a much, much -- what has to be a much, much larger puzzle that we hope needs to continue to evolve with time.
Music
==== Transcribed by Automatic Sync Technologies ====